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Lindows ruling knocks Microsoft back | |
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| Time: 15:26 EST/20:26 GMT | News Source: ZDNet | Posted By: Alex Harris | ||
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Microsoft's claim to the word "Windows" suffered another blow this week when a federal judge again questioned the company's assertion that the term is not generic. The judge also repeated his denial of Microsoft's request to shut down the Lindows.com site and block its owner from advertising its product. Lindows, started by Michael Robertson, the founder and former CEO of MP3.com, aims to offer an alternative to Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system by selling a new program, LindowsOS, which would allow Windows programs to run on the Linux operating system. A legal battle has been ongoing in federal court in Seattle since December, when Microsoft sued the start-up to prevent use of the Lindows name, claiming it violated Microsoft's trademarks. | ||
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| #1 By 6859 (204.71.100.215) at 5/16/2002 5:32:38 PM |
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I'm afraid I side with the judge on this one. MS couldn't copyright "windows" as that term existed prior to MS' formation as a company; and they couldn't copyright it because the Macintosh had "windows" before MS did. Clearly, the term "windows" is generic; however, MS could copyright the term "Microsoft Windows" or any derivitive thereof. Does my opinion open up the market for another company to produce a competing product and call it "Windows" as long as that term is prefaced by the company name? Yes. Do I think that will cause problems? No. Why? Because we all know who makes "Windows" and that is MS. If there was "Slackwarre Windows 2002" (or whatever) it still would not be "Microsoft Windows" nor would it look the same, act the same, or even necessarily run on the same hardware in the same manner. MS, you lose this time.
I think by even asking for Lindows to not be able to advertise their product, MS is going to look bad. |
| #2 By 1896 (208.61.157.211) at 5/16/2002 7:25:20 PM |
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Did anyone signed for this "preview" program? I don't see many news about Lindows on the Net. Do you have to sign a NDA too? I would curious to know how many people signed up.
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| #3 By 6253 (64.204.105.166) at 5/16/2002 9:41:23 PM |
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#1, MS is NOT asking for Lindows to not be able to advertise their product. According to Microsoft, they can advertise it as anything they want, as long as it's not "Lindows."
#2 is right; although Microsoft's registered trademark is "Microsoft Windows," there is plenty of case law which holds that any name likely to confuse or mislead can be considered infringing. For instance, the word "coke" doesn't infringe on Coca-Cola's trademark UNLESS it's used in the context of a soft drink. Lindows is an Intel-based OS with a GUI intentionally resembling Microsoft Windows and specific features for running Microsoft Windows applications. Although Mac has windows, Apple doesn't use Windows as the name of any Intel OS product. Although there are GUIs for Linux, KDE isn't called KDE Windows, nor is Gnome called Gnome Windows. It seems pretty clear that the name Lindows is chosen specifically to remind you of Microsoft Windows, so the issue before the judge is simply whether the audience reached by Lindows is likely to be confused. Right now, Lindows' audience hardly overlaps Microsoft's audience, but that may only be because Lindows doesn't have a bona fide product yet, just previews and marketing claims. The typical preview program participant is the type of person who knows the difference between PCI and AGP. This sort of person can rightfully claim not to be confused at all by Lindows' name. Once we get into Microsoft's larger market, we're talking about people who will die before ever figuring out which key is the slash and which one is the backslash. Once Lindows has a product, presumably it will go in search of that wider market. I don't see why Lindows doesn't change their name to "Linux for Windows Users." That would be clearly fair use of Microsoft's trademark, and it would describe the product accurately and concisely. This post was edited by holedup on Thursday, May 16, 2002 at 21:43. |
| #4 By 6859 (204.71.100.215) at 5/17/2002 9:01:54 AM |
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#6, gee, perhaps you missed the part in the article "The judge also repeated his denial of Microsoft's request to shut down the Lindows.com site and block its owner from advertising its product." So, unless English isn't your primary language, that DOES say that MS tried to get the judge to prohibit Lindows.com from advertising their product (their ONLY product, called Lindows.)
Also, Apple/whomever doesn't advertise their product as "windows" because their GUIs contain windows. It's a part of the package. A term is a term is a term. #7, True, but really that's semantics. Trademark, copyright, whichever. Though the laws are different the effect is virtually the same. Again, a term is a term is a term. Most people don't care and use them interchangeably (kinda like slander and libel [the former is spoken, the latter is written]) or blond and blonde (the former is a color and the latter is something that has the color indicated by the former....I found that distinction in a *Really* old dictionary once.) |
| #5 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 5/17/2002 3:38:43 PM |
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What I think is funny is right after Microsoft get's finished with their lawsuit against Lindows for trademark violations... The open source community will be suing them for copyright violations.
Lindows is obviously based off of Linux, but they are very careful to hide that fact on their website. |
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